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“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

Subscribe now to the Moondance news-blog to receive announcements, and the 2015 competition results, as soon as all the submissions have been previewed, and selection decisions have been made. Our very popular news-blog also has festival event info, entertainment industry news, insider tips, articles, recommendations, things to consider & more!

Drones are revolutionizing filmmaking, allowing filmmakers to achieve jaw-dropping, cinematic results that have previously only been available to hugely expensive Hollywood productions! Drone technology won’t turn you into a great filmmaker but it will enhance your skills as a story-teller, and, if used well, will make your work shine. If you’re wanting to get high-production value shots for your next film project and you’re looking at using a drone, here are top ten tips on how to get that money-shot safely & to watch a cool drone tutorial! Also available: something just as impressive – a camera-equipped quadcopter drone that can land on the water and shoot underwater footage, too!

MOONDANCE RECOMMENDS

From www.change.org:Did you know that Gap Inc. profits from animals’ inhumane suffering in the fur industry? Raccoon dogs, foxes, rabbits, mink, and even kangaroos are slaughtered and skinned for Gap Inc.’s Intermix stores despite this widespread cruelty to animals who are often beaten, electrocuted, or bled to death for their fur. A spokesperson for Gap Inc. said: “We are committed to the ethical sourcing of our products, which includes the humane treatment of animals,” but they have stopped short of putting this policy in place across all stores. Many Gap, Inc. fur products are made in China, a country with virtually nonexistent animal cruelty laws. If they claim to care about humane treatment of animals, why are they allowing their Intermix stores all over the world to continue selling fur coats, hats, gloves, and other accessories from animals killed? Please take a stand right now against the heartless slaughter of animals! Please sign this petition asking Gap Inc. to go completely fur-free!

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in complete harmony” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

“Memory is like a child wandering along the seashore. You can never tell what special small pebble or luminous seashell it will pick up and keep among its most precious treasures.” ~ P. Harris (edited)

“When we long for a life without difficulties, remember that oak trees grow old and strong in contrary winds, and diamonds are made under long years of great pressure.” ~ Peter Marshall

Thanks a million for all the fine submissions we’ve received this season, from Colorado, the USA & 29 other countries*!Previewing & judging of all submissions is now taking place.Results of the competition results are planned to be announced at the end of July.The screening schedule for selected films is planned to be announced in early August.

Subscribe now to theMoondance news-blogto receive announcements, and the 2015 competition results, as soon as all the submissions have been previewed, and selection decisions have been made. Our very popular news-blog also has festival event info, entertainment industry news, insider articles, recommendations, things to consider & more!

Moondance is different from most other film festivals in that it’s actually affordable, and user-friendly. You can register upon arrival, during the festival, and/or in advance on the Moondance website. There is no general festival registration fee at all. You can buy tickets to film screenings for $10 each. The networking parties & after-parties are all on-your-own (OYO), and the awards ceremony is only $25, with the awards reception afterwards also being OYO. There is also a special 10-film package for $75. All film tickets are generic & can be used for any film, any day, any theater, by any ticket-holder.

THE INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR ANIMAL WELFAREis currently one of the largest animal welfare and conservation charities in the world. The group’s declared mission is to “rescue and protect animals around the world.” Our Animal Action Education programme helps children learn and care about animals. Please donate today:www.ifaw.org/

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Please support this feature-length documentary,CRUTCH. It’s the cool and inspiring story of absolutely amazing performance artist, Bill Shannon. Bill’s been on crutches since he was a little boy (because of a disease called Legg-Calve-Perthes). Around the same time, Bill began to realize he had an irrepressible desire to dance, and that he was gifted at it. Break-dancing on his crutches, Bill became an underground legend — nicknamed “Crutch.” Once he added a skateboard into the mix, Bill’s unique talent began earning him worldwide acclaim: performances at the Tate Modern in London, dancing & choreographing for the Cirque du Soleil, & etc. For the last 10+ years, two passionate documentary filmmakers — Sachi Cunningham & Chandler Evans — have been chronicling Bill’s public ascent through the performance art world, and his private struggles with an increasingly painful “disability.” Check out the trailer:CLICK HERE TO WATCHIf you dig it, please join the global community of CRUTCH fans & supporters!

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FINDING ABILITY IN DISABILITY!

Stage 32member Brandi Thomascurrently attends Florida State University and is pursuing a degree in Commercial Music. In the past four months, Brandi has been hired onto eight film scoring jobs through Stage 32 and is a shining example of the power of putting yourself out there and networking within the Stage 32 community. One of the many things I love about Brandi is her selfless approach to networking, namely her willingness to put others first, contribute wherever and whenever possible and always spreading positivity. In this entry, Brandi discusses the obstacles she faced growing up with a disability and how that affected her pursuing a career in composing. With beautiful honesty, Brandi discusses how the only thing holding her back was herself and how once she let go of her fear of rejection she was unstoppable. This is an inspiring read for any creative no matter your discipline or background and the perfect way to kick start the week. To continue reading “Finding Ability In Disability”, clickHERE!

RE: My comments on this blog: “Thank you for sharing, Elizabeth! And I thought you were inspiring before I read this.” ~ Richard “RB” Botto, Founder & CEO of www.Stage32.com

Great screenplay writing starts with an attention-grabbing, unique, compelling character. It’s one of the most important ingredients to attract a star and third party financier. For investors to determine whether or not they want to finance a particular screenplay, they need to maximize the odds that they will attract a large audience and get a return on their investment. Today, a medium-budget movie can cost $20 million, plus another $20 million in print and advertising to promote it.

That’s A LOT of money! Short of having a pre-established brand with a built-in, guaranteed audience such as a best-selling novel or a comic book action hero, which only studios with deep pockets can afford — what is the tipping point that will make an investor want to finance a project?

The answer is simple – theyfall in love with the screenplay. But what makes people fall in love with your script? They may feel the subject matter is important, but above all, they fall in love with a character, become deeply intrigued and drawn into his or her journey. The same is true for actors and directors. With a compelling character, the investor hedge their bets, feel more confident in the ability to attract a star. Attaching a star in turn provides further assurance the film will perform well at the box office and they will receive a return on their investment.-Read more

Wendy Kram is a producer and the owner ofL.A. FOR HIRE, one of the industry’s leading consulting companies for screenwriters, filmmakers and production companies.

Thanks a million to all those talented filmmakers, writers & composers who have already submitted their entries for 2015!

Please note: Films may be submitted to Moondance by the director, producers, cinematographer, DP, film score composer, writer, editor or a lead actor(, with permission from the producer/director, as needed!

24 production companies joined InkTip in the past month alone, to look for new scripts to produce!

List your scripts nowto take full advantage of producers looking to option scripts and discover new writers. As you may know, we launched anew pricing structureto make it easier for writers to list multiple scripts. The more scripts you list on InkTip, the more visible you become to our growing network of producers and reps.Log in hereto list your scripts now and make them visible to the 24 production companies that just joined InkTip – as well as the dozens of producers who already hired multiple writers and optioned over 70 scripts so far this year – not to mention the many more producers who will option scripts very soon. New producers sign up and use InkTip every week, to find the scripts and writers they are looking for!

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“FRAGMENTED: THE HIDDEN HEROES OF BORNEO”

ABOUT THE FILM:

“Fragmented: the Hidden Heroes of Borneo”, from UK directors Stephanie Sammann and Ellie Mackay, explores the unusual conservation efforts by researchers in Northern Malaysian Borneo, where palm oil deforestation threatens one of the most treasured & wild parts of the planet. The forested depths of Borneo are home to some of the world’s most unique animals & plants, and at the current rate of deforestation, they are on the brink of being lost forever.

Within the ecological disaster unfolding around them, our unlikely protagonists work to protect some of the world’s most peculiar creatures against the impending destruction. From incredibly rare frogs, to impossibly strange insects, the scientists’ dedication to their subjects can be both baffling and moving. Their conservation methods are far from conventional, and the complicated relationship between the SAFE Project and the local palm oil corporations shows that the conservation story that we have all heard may not be all that it seems. More than just a nature documentary, Fragmented tells the story of the very human aspect behind one of the wildest places on earth.www.fragmentedfilm.com

“Karen Pearlman and I so appreciated your support of the first work of our Physical TV CompanyA Dancer Drops Out Of The Sky in the early days of Moondance. Many thanks and congratulations on what you have achieved over all these years with this festival.”
~ Richard James Allen

“So Moondance goes on its wonderful way. What a fine gateway you’ve created. I have decided you are an archetype…not sure which…but one of the good guys. Truly great work. Marguerite and I just smile when we think of you!”
~ Gino Matteo, playwright, 2014 winner, “Nellie” libretto

“I would love to offer my help for the Moondance Festival. Please let me know when you are ready to sign up volunteers. I will forever remember how wonderful an experience I had helping in the past.”
~ Lee Nicholson

Everyone within the International Film, TV and Theater industry can benefit from being a Stage32 member & networking with other members. The Stage 32 community is strictly for people working in or with a desire to work in film, television or theater. It’s a place to gather, to discuss and develop projects, to join actor with director, director with producer, producer with cast and crew, maybe even find financial support for filmmaking, promote your project, and connect screenwriters with agents, producers and directors. Here, you can grow your contact list and build a pertinent network in a rapid fashion. The more you participate, the greater the results. As the saying goes, it’s not only what you know, it’s also who you know. So, don’t wait for things to happen, make them happen. With over 400,000 members from every country on the planet, Stage 32 is the vital social network and educational hub for the film, television and theater community, and is uniquely populated with the most creative people on Earth. Join Stage 32 today and start building your world-wide entertainment industry network.

SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT:

SHOULD OR MUST?

Excerpts from

“The Crossroads of Should and Must: Find and Follow Your Passion”

By Elle Luna

Van Gogh, Chambre – Arles”

“Does what goes on inside show on the outside?,” young Vincent van Gogh despaired ina moving letter to his brotherwhile floundering to find his purpose. “Someone has a great fire in his soul and nobody ever comes to warm themselves at it, and passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney.” A century later, Joseph Campbell stoked that hearth of the soul with his foundational treatise onfinding your bliss. And yet every day, countless hearths and hearts grow ashen in cubicles around the world as we succumb to the all-too-human tendency toward choosing what we should be doing in order to make a living over what we must do in order to feel alive.

Sometimes, Shoulds are small, seemingly innocuous, and easily accommodated. “You should listen to that song,” for example. At other times, Shoulds are highly influential systems of thought that pressure and, at their most destructive, coerce us to live our lives differently.

Must is when we stop conforming to other people’s ideals and start connecting to our own – and this allows us to cultivate our full potential as individuals. To choose Must is to say yes to hard work and constant effort, to say yes to a journey without a road map or guarantees, and in so doing, to say yes to what Joseph Campbell called “the experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.” Choosing Must is the greatest thing we can do with our lives. (excerpted fromwww.BrainPickings.org)

No trees or natural habitats were harmed in the creation of this news-blog!

When we choose Should, we’re choosing to live our life for someone or something other than ourselves. The journey to Should can be smooth, the rewards can seem clear, and the options are often plentiful.

FILMS, SCRIPTS & FILM SCORES may be submitted to Moondance by the director, producers,cinematographer, DP, film score composer, writer, editor or lead actor(s), with permission from the producer/director, as needed!

Moondance was recently listed by MovieMaker magazine as one of the top 50 film festival competitions worth the entry fee!

Moondance now also accepts scripts for judging in these languages: FRENCH, SPANISH, GERMAN, DUTCH & AFRICAANS.

Our foreign-language readers are published writers & an award-winning screenwriter!

The Moondance International Film Festival, featuring its distinct cinematic visions and bold film selections, has distinguished itself around the world as much more than an annual film festival! The Moondance is a unique community, a supportive, productive, and creative year-round collaboration between independent filmmakers and movie audiences, between writers, composers and the world of top-quality filmed entertainment.

The Moondance International Film Festival is always independent, uncensored, totally unfettered, often irreverent, sometimes controversial, always entertaining, and definitely not beholden to any special interests! We select films, written works and music with these criteria: a unique story, well-told.

Moondancers are part of an amazing worldwide entertainment community; a unique collaboration of multi-talented writers, filmmakers, and film score composers. The Moondance mission is to entertain, inform, inspire, encourage and educate. We honor those artists who, through their creative work, actively increase awareness, provide multiple viewpoints, address complex social issues, and strengthen ties between international audiences. At Moondance, you can come together with other writers, directors and producers to create new opportunities, develop tools for success and forge new alliances within the international film and entertainment industry.

“Tomorrowland” character Casey was originally written for a male actor, but a switch to a female lead was better for the script, according to co-writer Damon Lindelof. “There is a completely false perception of, ‘Well, our main character is interested in space travel, so it’s gotta be a boy,’ but the first time I said, ‘Well, what if it was a young girl’… It just felt like it was exactly right for us,” Lindelof said. “It’ll be nice in 10 or 15 years for this not to be a thing anymore,” he added. Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, working to create positive images of girls and women in media & entertainment:www.seejane.org

A MOONDANCER WRITES US:

“I love that you have a music portion as part of your festival. The composers and others who create original music for film get too little attention at festivals. I’m really proud of both the score and the original music in my film.” ~ Mikki Del Monico, award-winningfilmmaker, screenwriter, Venice Beach, CA, www.mikidel.com

SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER:

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel have read only one page.” ~St. Augustine

Photo: Dominique Browning“When we say, ‘This is the best I can do for now…’, there is nobility in the effort, courage in the the doggedness. It is a process of trying and perhaps failing. Of beginning again. And so it is with the search for meaning – like writing, its rewards spring not from the finished product but from the integrity of the process, from the act of holding up one’s own end…” ~ Dani Shapiro

The Moondance winners’ star awardThe Moondance Star Award“I am not what happened to me; I am what I choose to become!” ~ Carl Jung

Hopi Second Mesa, www.imgsoup.com“Silence can be fertilizing, it can bathe the imagination, it can, as in great open spaces – be the nimbus of a way of life, a condition of vision.” ~ Adrienne Rich

Films may be submitted to Moondance by the director, producers, cinematographer, DP, film score composer, writer, editor or lead actor(s), with permission from the producer/director, as needed!

“Mer-folk” Sculpture by Charlotte Zink, of www.zinkmetalart.com

“Qui ne tente rien, n’a rien.”(One who doesn’t try will have nothing) ~ French proverbWithoutabox for Moondance International Film Festival is now fully active for this season’s call for entries:www.withoutabox.com/login/1240

Do you eat chicken, turkey, beef, pork, fish, buffalo, venison, and/or lamb? These animals need to eat, of course, and they feed on plants that are in danger of being lost if we lose pollinators like bees! Other herbivores, such as bears, birds, horses, koalas, deer, elephants, hippos, giraffes, pandas, yaks, silkworms, zebras, beavers, kangaroos, rabbits, gorillas, camels, tortoises, iguanas, geckos, butterflies, ants, earthworms, and so on, will all die out from starvation, if their food sources are not pollinated. When trees, grasses, wildflowers and other ground-covers are not pollinated, the rains will bring world-wide floods, mud-slides and dust-storms. Saving bees saves the world as we know it!

From the current Sierra Club newsletter: There’s a good chance that you’ve consumed at least one fruit, vegetable or nut today – maybe even as you’re reading this. But what would happen to those foods if the bees were gone? A recent annual survey of beekeepers showed that approximately 5,000 US beekeepers reported a bee loss of 42.1% last year. The crisis facing our bees is so bad, the White House has become involved. After years of pressure from people just like you, the EPA announced a moratorium on all of the new bee-harming neonicotinoid pesticides (neonic) products and uses. This is a good first step in the right direction, but it does NOTHING to reverse the devastating impact of existing pesticides. This is exactly why we need to act!

A world without bees is unimaginable. But with your help, we won’t let that happen. www.sieraclub.org

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MOZAMBIQUE HAS LOST HALF OF ITS ELEPHANTS!

Elephant poaching crises across Africa!

The results of our latest survey are in, and they are heartbreaking. Estimates from Mozambique suggest elephant populations have fallen by about 10,000 in just five years – a staggering 48% drop! That’s 10,000 thinking, feeling, majestic creatures. 10,000 individuals defenseless against a poacher’s bullet. All dead. And for what? Ivory trinkets? It’s clear that we’ve reached crisis levels. How we respond and what we do next will determine the end of this story and the future of elephants. YOUR generous contribution will go directly to fund anti-poaching patrols, aerial surveillance, criminal prosecutions for poaching and ivory sales, and other key steps to halting the massacres. ~Wildlife Conservation Society

SOME OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER:

Photo: suemckay.com

“You don’t stop laughing because you grow old; you grow old because you stop laughing.” ~ Michael Pritcha

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Photo: www.thebark.com

“An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.” ~ Orlando A. Battista

“In 2013 my stageplay ‘Stitched Up’ was awarded a finalist placing in the Moondance International Film Festival 2013, and now that play is going to be staged at the Christchurch Centre of Performing Arts from October 1st – Oct. 10th. Auditions are being held now and the booking office for my play is already open!!

I am so excited, Elizabeth, and I want to thank you and Moondance so much for believing in my work and giving me the confidence and support to push it out there to a wider audience. To finally hear actors speaking my lines….there are no words for that.

Once again, many, many thanks to you and Moondance – it’s the Moondance name and the significant prestige that it carries with the name that has got me this far.Be assured Moondance will be given all the recognition and fanfare it deserves when my play steps from the curtains and takes centre place of stage.” ~ Celine Gibson, North Otago (the headquarters of Steam Punk), New Zealand

A MOONDANCE WINNER’S GOOD NEWS:

“We have finished our film The World Is My Country! We are having a WRAP PARTY weekend at our beach house in Playa La Mision in Baja California, Mexico, only an hour’s drive south of San Diego.” ~ Arthur Kanegis, director, producer, Moondance award-winning screenwriter for the script to this film

“This film is a must see for anyone who believes in personal freedom” —Rowland Perkins, Founding President, Creative Artists Agency

“Elegant and delicious storytelling! A riveting heroic tale with resonance for our time: a troubled war veteran using his thespian skills in a nonviolent battle to save his soul, the planet, and all humanity.” — Mimi Kennedy, actor in “Midnight in Paris,” “Dharma & Greg,” Erin Brockovich

“I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen … wow! … inspiring & entertaining, the direction & production values are very good & it has fine editing. At the end of the film I just had to rush online to order my own World Passport. This film can inspire us all to join together to build a better world.” —Elizabeth English, Founder, Moondance International Film Festival

Our successful crowd-funding campaign raised $42,000 from 149 donors – enabling to further improve and finish the film. Now we are seeking further funds for our film festival run and to line up a distributor so we can bring this important story to a wide audience. Check outwww.1worldcitizen.comto see few short clips, & to catch the vision.

NEWS FROM A MOONDANCER:

The film “10 Days in a Madhouse” will have its world debut at Cannes. I play police officer Tom Bockert. It is the story of Nellie Bly, an investigative journalist who feigns mental illness so she can get inside Blackwell Island insane asylum for women and record the abuses. I escort her to her sanity trial and then the nut house! ~ Mark Lysgaard, 2012 Moondance winning screenwriter

INSIDER TIPS ON WRITING FOR ACTORS:

“An actor, entering the room through a door…you’ve got nothing. An actor, entering the same room through a window…now you’ve got a situation!” ~ Billy Wilder

You should always write your scripts for the actors! The actors, directors and the audiences will appreciate it. Give them action, give them crises and conflicts to deal with, give your lead roles the best dialog and actions, write visually, giving them interesting and memorable things to do. Make each actor’s role and character distinctive, and have them react and relate to each other in the way that particular character would do, in that situation. Give each lead and secondary actor a specific personality and back-story. And show it; don’t just tell it! Actors and directors despise exposition and explanations in dialog. Have them act it out, in real time or in flash-backs.

Get briefly into the actor’s character, situation, personality, circumstances, needs, problems, fears, preferences, style, past, demeanor, and so on, and why he or she is in this role, in this story…and do it early in the first scene in which the actor appears. A good actor, such as Anthony Hopkins, Meryl Streep, or Dustin Hoffman, can create (and become) this unique character in a flash, sometimes with just a glance, an accent, a grimace, a smile, body language, or a slight twitch.

Keep the physical description of the actor simple, though. You may want to have a character be in his late sixties, for example, and tall, thin, elegant, neatly bearded, wearing a designer tuxedo, speaks with a British accent, and having blue eyes and handsome. This limits whom the director can select for that role. Maybe you were thinking of the late Peter O’Toole for the role? But perhaps Tom Cruise, Samuel Jackson or Bill Murray (or even Julia Roberts or Linda Hunt!) have expressed great interest in the role!

Create unique, but relatable, situations for your actors.

If writing a comedy, like a Western, you might have an actor, instead of riding his or her horse up to the saloon and tying it up at the ol’ hitchin’ post, have him or her ride the horse right through the swinging doors of the saloon and up to the bar!

In a drama, what if the character, male or female, walks alone and sadly along a boardwalk by the ocean, but is wearing a wedding dress, and it’s raining cats and dogs?

How about this: it’s a thriller, and the character fearfully walks down the stairs of a dark and gloomy old mansion, and as he or she passes the ancient family portraits, each one speaks to him or her with a dire warning, but the character just laughs, and goes out into the brilliant sunshine of the beautiful spring garden.

In a character-driven film story, again, show, don’t tell. Let’s say a character is severely depressed, and maybe even suicidal; He or she paces the floor, and then looks into an old, ornate mirror, and the mirror (symbolically) cracks!

Make your characters unique! A child is in the scene, but in a wheelchair, and is playing with his toy airplane, swooping it in the air and making airplane engine sounds. A blind teenage girl is having a tea-party with her dolls, or an obese and homeless old woman is wistfully listening to a twirling-bride music box at the Salvation Army store. A young black boy plays jazz on an out-of-tune upright piano that’s been abandoned on the sidewalk in a slum area. A ragged and dirty homeless person planting flowers in the park where she sleeps.

Are you writing a script for a documentary film? (Yes, doc films always need a script!) Limit “talking-heads” to an absolute minimum, or, preferably, none at all. Script mostly voice-overs while showing whatever the person is talking about. Audiences relate to and remember more of what they see, not as much as what they hear spoken.

Writing for an animation film? The lead character, an altruistic green dolphin, sees a rowboat capsize in the stormy seas, and silently enlists other dolphins, sea turtles and a Mermaid to help save the floundering person from drowning.

Writing for the stage? What if it’s the 1890’s, the character is a playwright, too, and sits typing away at a big black typewriter in an old Victorian mansion? As he writes, he speaks the lines and different characters walk into the scene & act out the role, but, frustrated, the writer then rips the paper out of the typewriter, balls it up and tosses it onto the floor, while the character disappears from the stage.

Writing a story for radio, comedy or drama? Make sure each character speaks distinctly from the others, sighs, laughs, interrupts, slurs, has an accent, groans, hesitates, clears his or her throat, is sarcastic or sweet, or whatever…since radio is an audio play, and the listener must visualize each character.

Writing a short script for a music video? Don’t just show the band playing and singing, and with the audience reactions. Even close-ups and odd camera angles can get boring. Tell an interesting and visual story that works with the band’s style and lyrics!

But don’t tell the actor how to play his or her role (in parentheses below the character’s name) in the script. That’s the job of the actor and the director.

Each of these visual, cinematic scenarios show the audience who the character is, and without a single word of dialog or exposition. As the late, great director, Billy Wilder, states, above, create interesting situations for your actors!

“Being a writer is a strenuous marriage between careful observation and just as carefully imagining the truths you haven’t yet had the opportunity to observe. The rest is the necessary, strict toiling with the language; for me this means writing and rewriting the sentences until they sound as spontaneous as good conversation.” ~ John Irving, intro to “Trying to Save Piggy Sneed”

A MOONDANCER WRITES US:

“For anyone who has never attended a Moondance–it’s very special! Small town style, with top-of-the-line people both running the event and there to provide guidance, teach classes and hear pitches, coach novices and seasoned screenwriters into production. Elizabeth Engllish did a session on TITLES! How a Title can make or break a script, and we workshopped titles until something that works happened! It’s more casual with more interaction with great people–I’ve had breakfast, lunch and dinner and “socialized” with dozens of the best in script coaches, trainers, teachers, producers, directors, agents, and all facets of the FILM BIZ, but all the while having a wonderful, relaxing time in a country setting. I have volunteered to help out a few times, and thoroughly enjoyed the feedback on my scripts and the entire event. ~ Vera Holman

SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER:

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, one discovers that it is attached to the whole world.” ~ John Muir

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“While you are dreaming of the future, or worrying about it, or regretting the past, the present, which is all you have, may slip away from you and then it is gone.” ~ Hilaire Belloc

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“The Ridge” video, www.cutmedia.com

“The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done at all.” ~ Arnold Palmer

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dawnspitfire.wordpress.com

“Life is nothing less than telling stories. We are hard-wired to communicate. Hard-wired to listen, participate, exchange ideas, and entertain. When we stop telling new, fresh, stories…we cease to engage in the “mix”. Our lives become smaller…Hyperbole? Hell yes. But sometimes only hyperbole suffices to speak the truth… breathe, be alive and keep telling stories.” ~ Duncan Payne, screenwriter/ & lawyer, LinkedIn.com

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Dominique Browning photo

“People do not seem to care how nobly they live, only how long, despite the fact that it is within their reach to live nobly, but within no-one’s reach to live long.” ~ Seneca

The Moondance International Film Festival, featuring its distinct cinematic visions and bold film selections, has distinguished itself around the world as much more than an annual film festival! The Moondance is a unique community, a supportive, productive, and creative year-round collaboration between independent filmmakers and movie audiences, between writers, composers and the world of top-quality filmed entertainment.

Writing a treatment is a skill that can help any screenwriter succeed, at any point in the creative process. There are at least three parts of getting a screenplay sold or financed. Learning to write a treatment can jumpstart a writer’s career because it allows a screenwriter to communicate his or her screenplay idea in a brief but compelling way. It also can be a powerful diagnostic and creative tool.

This document should read like a short story and be written in the present tense. It should present the entire story including the ending, and use some key scenes and dialogue from the screenplay it is based on.

What Should Be in the Treatment?

A Working title

The writer’s name and contact information

WGA Registration number

A short logline

Introduction to key characters

Who, what, when, why and where.

Act 1 in one to three paragraphs. Set the scene, dramatize the main conflicts.

Act 2 in two to six paragraphs. Should dramatize how the conflicts introduced in Act 1 lead to a crisis.

Act 3 in one to three paragraphs. Dramatize the final conflict and resolution.

A treatment may be defined as a prose narrative (five to twenty-five pages long) that presents the characters and events of a proposed script, movie or television series, in a way that allows the reader to enter far enough into the drama to understand the ways in which the story and characters will be treated, including a vivid sense of the characters’ and story’s attitudes as well as the movement of the emotional energy and its relationship to what the story is about (theme).

Generally speaking, a film’s treatment is similar to that of an overview or synopsis of the film idea. It usually ranges from 8 to 15 pages and includes all the important conceptual elements, structured in 3-5 acts, each with a beginning, middle and end. When you submit your script, your treatment will often be the first document to be glanced over. If the main concept is enjoyable and your treatment is well written maybe, just maybe, your script will make it into the hands of the “professional script reader”. This is an important element of screenwriting which you should know about. When you submit your script to producers, you will not be submitting your scripts to the major decision makers first. Your script will first have to pass through a filter that these large production companies have put in place.

A film treatment states how the audience will experience the film. It’s important to write treatments in an active voice and avoid the use of hyperbole (such as “this unique film will explore” etc). When writing treatments you want your audience to be able to visualize your film. You will want to write in present tense and provide an overview of the characters, locations and details of the film. You can write your treatment creatively. The purpose of a treatment is to allow your audience to smell, taste and experience your environment. Reading a treatment (second only to reading a full script) is the closest written equivalent to the look of your film.

If a screenplay focuses the story for a film, the treatment does the same thing for a screenplay. A treatment could be considered a written pitch; something that catches the buyers attention and makes then want to see more.

One big difference between treatments and screenplays is that treatments are written in paragraph form where as screenplays have a very technical format. Keep the language simple yet forceful and declarative. The purpose of the treatment is to describe the events of the story so that it can be visualized and brought to life. This should be done using the least amount of words possible.

There are several aspects of a treatment that must be in place in order for a treatment to be effective. These include a solid opening that takes hold of the reader from the very beginning. There must also be a climax to the film that strikes and satisfies them. In between, there must be a protagonist (or main character) that the reader can relate to in some way. This does not mean that the main character will always be a hero or someone that the audience likes, only that the protagonist is someone that stands out and draws the audience in. The story must also contain a central conflict around which all the action in the story revolves.

MOONDANCE RECOMMENDS:

HELP STOP THE SLAUGHTER OF AFRICAN ELEPHANTS!

Craigslist‘s own policy prohibits the sale of animal parts, including ivory on its sites. And yet, right now, the sale of ivory is rampant on Craigslist.

Do they know that all ivory comes from dead elephants?

Craigslist’s policy is humane and simply the right thing to do. But they need to follow through and enforce their own rules.

The Wildlife Conservation Society just conducted a joint investigation with their friends at the International Fund for Animal Welfare and what we found was shocking. A sample of Craigslist sites, in cities both large and small, yielded hundreds of postings for ivory – valued at well over one million dollars!

QUIET ON THE SET! Is a unique, no-cost filmmaking program for inner-city & at-risk teens. These teens will have the opportunity to progressively develop their education and knowledge of filmmaking and build their life skills here. Our mission: Make a positive, lasting difference in the lives of these teens. Our workshops most effectively meet the needs & criteria of communities through educational enhancement, life-skills development & recreational style technical training in filmmaking. Please support this vital effort to help the next generation of filmmakers:

“Rowing harder doesn’t help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction.” ~ Kenichi Ohmae

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OM & Ganesha symbol

“There are three ways of acting wisely. First, by meditation; that is the noblest. Secondly, by imitation; that is the easiest. Thirdly, by experience; and that is the bitterest.” ~ Confucious

MOONDANCE ALSO RECOMMENDS:

MORE THAN 25 MILLION BARS OF SOAP RECYCLED

FROM 500,000 HOTEL & MOTEL ROOMS

DISTRIBUTED TO 99 COUNTRIES!

How Clean the World is changing the world: According to the World Health Organization, millions of young lives could be saved with access to bar soap and family hygiene education. Saving lives requires a holistic approach that integrates soap with a comprehensive water, sanitation and hygiene program. By recycling soap and other discarded hygiene products, Clean the World saves lives with items that traditionally end up in landfills. Clean the World has a two-part mission: Collect and recycle soap and hygiene products discarded every day by the hospitality industry and other sectors that generate environmental waste.

An estimated 1.9 billion school days could be gained if safe water, sanitation facilities and hand-washing with soap & clean water were standard across all schools. Our Soap in Schools program aims to help learning performance and health by reducing the incidence of water and sanitation related diseases. Special emphasis is placed and teaching hygiene and creating a habit that will be sustained into adult-hood. Through the distribution of these and other donated products to impoverished people, prevent millions of hygiene-related deaths each year, reduce the morbidity rate for hygiene-related illnesses, and encourage healthy, vigorous childhood development. LEARN MORE: https://cleantheworld.org

As of today, Moondance’s LinkedIn.com account has 7,800+ connections; our Stage32.com has 2,600+ connections, & our Facebook.com page has had 838 “likes” just in the past week alone, by friends of Moondance from 48 different countries! This very popular & well-read news-blog has an 80% open rate & a 50% click-thru rate, which is a blog “phenomenon”, according to WordPress.

THE MOONDANCE: HOW DO WE DO IT?

OUR NOT-SO-SECRET RECIPE: We start with the magic of specially-selected fresh ingredients, lots of dedication, add a generous shake of creativity, stir in a whole load of know-how & international flavors, spice it up with the latest innovations, prepare a delightful table full of enlightenment and entertainment, and sprinkle on a big handful of love & inspiration. Et voila! There you have the one and only Moondance International Film Festival, one of the most inspiring, vibrant, productive and user-friendly, organic and all-natural cinema events in the world, and which is not to be missed.

We bring to the best table in the house decades of experience and success, into which we have liberally poured a delicious spread of top-quality indie films gathered from around the world, and a productive bunch of user-friendly networking opportunities for dessert. So, come on in, have a seat and enjoy. It’s a tasty (non-GMO) formula that’s been working beautifully we opened our doors in 1999!

FILM AS COMMUNICATION

Living in the 21st Century is to engage in the consumption, production, and distribution of sounds, images, and information, that enables creative talents and audiences to realize and gain a more sophisticated and contemporary understanding of media – defined as the multiple channels, technologies, and interfaces through which information, ideas, and emotions are stored, shared, and reciprocated – and the ways in which that plethora of media shape our understanding of the world and our ability to act in it, for the common good, to make it a better place, as well as to promote a heightened ability to analyze, contextualize, create and use all forms of media, and emerging trends affecting the traditional media distribution channels, as a vital exercise in creative expression and positive change through entertainment mediums.

Films screened at Moondance are entertaining and uniquely distinguished by our focus on the relations between media and social justice, and how media is inextricably linked to questions of power, rights, human development, peace, national and international social and environmental issues, creative expression, entertainment, collaboration, self-determination and powerful calls for action. And films sell popcorn, which is a very lucrative and amazingly profitable product for the movie houses!

Watch this 3-minute trailer, shot in stunning northern Pakistan, about the plight of the unsung heroes, the indigenous porters of majestic K2, the earth’s second-highest peak. In 2008, a tragic disaster on K2 claimed the lives of 11 mountaineers. In K2 AND THE INVISIBLE FOOTMEN, filmmaker Iara Lee and her team chronicle the lives of those who make possible ascents of the world’s tallest mountains, including both Pakistani porters and Nepalese sherpas. The film also follows the first official all-Pakistani climbing team, made up of former porters. This team successfully summited in 2014, on the 60th anniversary of the first ascent of the mountain. Amid breathtaking scenery, the film depicts the everyday sacrifices of porters and the courage of those indigenous climbers who choose to return to scale K2 in spite of past tragedies. In their striving to perfect their craft, these mountaineers provide a fresh look into the cultures and national traditions of Pakistan, a country typically portrayed in the foreign media as merely a land of conflict and sectarian strife.

A new label on some bottles of Bud Light, one of the brands owned by the beer giantAnheuser-Busch InBev, is falling flat among women, a demographic group the industry has been desperately courting in hopes of jump-starting flagging sales of suds. In a continuation of its “Up for Whatever” campaign, a wide blue band low on the label says, “The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night.” Protests quickly erupted in social media, criticizing what was perceived as perhaps not the best marketing language in the midst of public outcry over date rape on college campuses.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

By TRIPP MICKLE April 29,

At Bud Light, Plenty of ‘Yes’ Went Into the ‘No’ Label. A controversial Bud Light label went through at least five layers of approval before it landed on the front of beer bottles and sparked a social-media storm among consumers concerned it encouraged date rape.

SALON

Rush Limbaugh, furious that Bud Light dropped offensive slogan — claims “rape culture” is a “concoction of the Left” Rush Limbaugh insisted yesterday that the response to Bud Light’s infelicitous new slogan — “the perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night” — was overblown because “there’s no such thing as ‘rape culture’ in America.” “It’s a myth! Like so much of liberalism!”

“We Want to Apologize For Our Bottle Message, It Clearly Missed the Mark…”

STATEMENT FROM A MOONDANCE FILMMAKER:

My name is Miho Aida. I am an adult immigrant from Japan, environmental educator and filmmaker. My cultural lens as a woman of color enables me to see a lack of environmental media created by, for and about women of color. Mainstream environmental movement often fails to include people of color, especially indigenous people as part of our landscape. Recognizing this reality, I felt compelled to tell the Gwich’in women’s story.

www.matricien.org

I made a contact with Sarah James, the spokesperson of the Gwich’in and the Goldman Environmental Prize recipient. She told me that I could come visit and interview her. I arrived her village in the Arctic, with a plan to create a 3 minutes video of her interview. After spending two weeks with Sarah James, she asked if I would join the Gwich’in gathering and interview other women to create a film. That wasn’t my plan because I had no funding, proper equipment or former trainings in filmmaking. All I had was Flip Video Camera, MacBook and iMovie. But I said, “Yes,” and that is how this award-winning film came to be.

I said “Yes” to Sarah because I want to live a life that honors my name and birth-date. My name in Japanese means a protector of people, culture and environment. My birth-date is when our government officially declared Women’s Equality Day. I aspire to live a life that honors my name and birth-date by creating a culture that gives voice to girls and women of color and empower them to make a difference. Your mission, values and goals are well aligned with the faces and messages that my film shares with the world.

SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT:

“Pier Fishing” by Ivey Hayes

“The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, and a perpetual series of occasions for hope.” ~ quote in “The Price of Life” article byAriel Levy, The New Yorker magazine, April 13, 2015

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Colorado mountains range & columbines, state flower

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the Earth will find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.” ~ Rachel Carson

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“The circumstances of our lives actually matter less to our happiness than the sense of control we feel over our lives.” ~ Rory Sutherland

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‪africansweetheart.blogspot.com

“True bravery is shown by performing without witnesses that which one is capable of doing before all the world.” ~ La Rouchefoulcauld

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“If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living.” ~ Joseph Campbell

BE THE LIGHTHOUSE!

(A parable on arrogance, author unknown)

In the darkest part of the night, a ship’s captain cautiously piloted his battleship through the fog-shrouded waters. With straining eyes he scanned the hazy darkness, searching for dangers lurking just out of sight. Then his worst fears were realized when he saw a bright light straight ahead. It appeared to be a vessel on a collision course with his ship. To avert disaster he quickly radioed the oncoming vessel. “This is Captain Jeremiah Smith,” his voice crackled over the radio. “Please alter your course 10 degrees south! Over.”

To the captain’s amazement, the foggy image did not move. Instead, he heard back on the radio, “Captain Smith. This is Private Thomas Johnson. Please alter your course 10 degrees north! Over.” Appalled at the audacity of the message, the captain shouted back over the radio, “Private Johnson, this is Captain Smith, and I order you to immediately alter your course 10 degree south! Over.”

A second time the oncoming light did not budge. “With all due respect Captain Smith,” came the private’s voice again, “I order you to alter your course immediately 10 degrees north! Over.” Angered and frustrated that this impudent sailor would endanger the lives of his crew, the captain growled back over the radio, “Private Johnson. I can have you court-martialed for this! For the last time, I command you, on the authority of the United States government, to alter your course 10 degrees to the South! I am a battleship!”

The private’s final transmission was chilling: “Captain Smith, sir. Once again, and with all due respect, I command you to alter your course! I AM A LIGHTHOUSE!”

Moondancers are part of an amazing worldwide community; a unique collaboration of multi-talented writers, film score composers, filmmakers and audiences. The Moondance mission is to entertain, inform, inspire, encourage and educate. We honor those artists who, through their creative work, actively increase awareness, provide multiple viewpoints, address complex social issues, and strengthen ties between international audiences At Moondance, you can come together with film audiences, filmmakers, writers, directors, producers, actors, agents, and composers to create new opportunities, develop tools for success and forge new alliances within the international film and entertainment industry.

The Cinema for Peace Foundationendeavors to promote worldwide peace and understanding through the support of cinematographic works, and to further develop the goals and activities established by the Cinema for Peace initiative and annual Gala.

Film plays a significant role in highlighting inequality, injustice and inhumanity, as well as can offer a hope and vision for a better future. This being the primary reason why the Cinema for Peace Foundation works to provide an internationally recognizable and easily accessible platform for promoting human rights values, both in the first world and in afflicted countries.

The central mission of Cinema for Peace Foundation is to provide support through the funding, production and worldwide distribution and promotion of film projects, which focus on humanitarian and justice issues, such as the prevention of disease (e.g. AIDS), terrorism, ecocide, war, poverty and violation of human rights.

Cinema for Peace aims to bring these humanitarian issues to public attention through the medium of film by partnering with the international film community as well as influential people in media, politics, business and society, to showcase cinematic works which emphasize the human condition and values.READ MORE:

The Green Online Platform houses a distinctive green film library collection that highlights the latest environmental films that captivate our attention and raise awareness on urgent issues and push us to take action. These films focus on issues such as health of ecosystems, endangered species, wildlife conservation, diversity of species, preservation of habitat: seashores, forest, mountains, deserts, wetlands, soil management. We invite you to browse particular categories and find the most current films addressing these issues, as well as our international Green Film winners.

Veterans in Film & Television is a nonprofit networking organization that unites current and former members of the military working in the film and television industry. Created and operated by veterans, VFT makes it simple and easy for the film & television industry to connect with the veteran community working in it. It is a resource for the film/TV industry to find and hire veterans. It is also an organization for veterans who work, or aspire to work, in film/TV to interact with, support, and learn from each other.

By using the VFT veteran directory on the website, you can search for veterans who work, or are aspiring to work, in all areas of film & television and contact them directly through their personal VFT profile. Before any member is allowed to create a profile their service in the U.S. military has been verified so you know you are searching actual veterans. Vets who are actors, writers, technical consultants, gaffers, grips, students, etc. are all in the VFT directory. Best of all this service is FREE for both the user and the veteran!

InkTip Magazine featuring several of InkTip’s more than 200 produced features!

SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

“We humans are the only kind of varmint who sets our own trap, baits it, and then steps in it.” ~ John Steinbeck

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“When one door closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.” ~ Helen Keller

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“Energy and persistence conquer all things.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

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“All that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about!” ~ Charles Kingsley

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“The essence of loving-kindness is being able to offer happiness. You can be the sunshine for another person.” ~ How to Love:Legendary Zen Buddhist Teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, on Mastering the Art of “Interbeing

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“Within the global entertainment industry, film, television and stage actors are the public representatives of all people, and should come in all genders, sizes, colors, ethnic backgrounds, ages, and appearances; not just young, white, male, and physically attractive.” ~ EE

Imagine you have the ability to save the lives of 15,000 dolphins per year! Well, you do! Right now, you can help complete a shocking film exposé to pressure Peruvian legislators to put a stop to the slaughter of dolphins for shark bait. You can save these sentient, thinking, friendly dolphins from a dreadful fate. Please make a donation at our crowd-funding site to help us finish this film. We already have the footage documenting the slaughter. It is the key to stopping this needless brutality. As you know, crowd-funding depends on the involvement of many people. So do thousands of dolphins. So please pass this along to your animal -loving friends. We all have a unique opportunity to save thousands of dolphins. Please help. We have a matching grant that enables you to double your donation. Please contribute and make this film a reality so these dolphins can lead free, safe lives in the ocean with their families.With your help, we can expose this tragedy worldwide.

Our international community media organization equips women and men in underdeveloped areas with video journalism skills, enabling entire communities to expose underreported stories from their communities and take action to right the wrongs of poverty, injustice and inequality. We empowermarginalized communities to produce stories, take action & devise solutions!

Video Volunteers is an international media organization empowering the voices of the world’s unheard communities. Its mission is to empower the world’s poorest citizens to right the wrongs they witness by becoming players in the global media revolution. Providing disadvantaged communities with the journalistic and creative skills they need, our models for locally-owned and managed media production teach people to articulate and share their perspectives on the issues that matter to them – on a local and a global scale. Sign-up for our Newsletter: Click Here!

“The beauty of the land around me inspires me in the creation of my art. Jewelry is not just an ornament or decoration but more of an expression of our personality. Jewelry is an extended expression of who we are and how we feel. At times we want to be serious or elegant, subtle, sometimes playful or fun, and sometimes we want to express our essential uniqueness and desire to be different. All of my jewelry designs are created with the highest quality beads, pearls, gemstones and metals collected from around the world. I think of my jewelry as a collage of vintage style embellishments, creatures and stones, crystals and pearls, hand crafted lamp work & beads.” ~ Sage Ryen, designer

SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT:

“Do not follow only where the path may lead. No, instead, go where there is no path, and leave a trail for others.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“You know more of a road by having traveled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world.” ~ William Hazlitt

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Photo collection by Abraham Louis

“I see no borders, just horizons.” ~ Amelia Earhart

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Oak tree, natureofbrooklyn.wordpress.com

“The secret of success is constancy of purpose.” Benjamin Disraeli

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“To be a great champion, you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are.” ~ Muhammad Ali

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“Let us cherish the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, dream, write and create!” ~John Adams

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“A life without stories would be no life at all. And stories bind us together, do they not, one to another, to the animals, to the land, to the past and to the present?” ~ Alexander McCall Smith(edited excerpt) “In the Company of Cheerful Women”, The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series

Take a look inside the Moondance photo album! (Click below)

A listing of your script on InkTip so that producers and reps can find you. InkTip helps writers sell their scripts and get representation. Producers have made more than 200 films from scripts and writers they found through InkTip!

STUDIO-TYPE COVERAGE OF YOUR SCRIPT OR FILM! Ready to get your screenplay or film on the right track?

Moondancer Endorsement!

I was contacted by a sales company, Circus Road Films and by a distribution company named Silverline Entertainment. Both found my film on the Moondance roster and requested a screener, which I sent them. One of the things I liked reading about Moondance is your investment not only in the festival itself, but in helping filmmakers get through industry doors - which has been tough, to say the least. Thanks for curating an important and much-needed festival. As a woman director, the added hurdles I face daily can feel insurmountable, and your work keeps women like me going. ~ Ela Their, director, “Tomorrow Ever After”, screening at Moondance 2016

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